Wednesday, July 30, 2008

We were in Utah for 2 and a half weeks to make sure we were able to spend enough time with both sides of our families. I drove the kids up on Friday July 11th. Peter was only able to take 4 vacation days, so he flew up on Wednesday, July 23rd and we all drove home on Monday July 28th. We first arrived and stayed in Eagle Mountain, Utah and stayed with my sister in law and family. We actually stayed there the longest for several reasons, new baby, kids play really well together, around the corner from our last house, etc. The first week was supposed to be more relaxing with just hanging out, swimming here and there, and going to grantsville to visit grandparents. The kids had so much fun just being able to play with their cousins.

Now with the throw up... Tuesday morning we went to watch Haley and Livvy at their tennis lessons. While laying on the blankets Abbey told me that she wasn't feeling well. A few minutes later she was throwing up on the grass. When the lesson were over we headed "home" and on the way Abbey threw up again. When we got to Brandee's house I took Abbey upstairs to have her change her clothes. As I was helping her, I noticed Jake's face had all of a sudden gotten really pale and he started whining. I quickly grabbed the first thing I saw (which happened to be my pajama pants) and held them up to him and he started to throw up. Apparently the throw ups were and still are going around in utah. Abbey threw up throughout the day, but Jake never did till later that night. Shortly after Jake threw up again, I was walking back upstairs after I had just cleaned out his bowl and heard Owen getting ready to throw up, so I quickly caught it with the bowl. We got really lucky that all the vomit made it to easily washed items (no carpet). Luckily when my kids get sick, the usually throw up for a couple of hours and then are done with it. So by wednesday morning we had cancelled all our plans for the day and spent the day just relaxing around the house and everyone was feeling better so we were starting to make plans for thursday. Well, thursday morning around 1am, my niece Livvy woke up not feeling good. She ended up throwing up through the morning. Since Quincy hadn't gotten sick yet, we opted to leave for the day and go to my sister's house to deliver thrifty's ice cream and visit for a little while, then go to a park in lehi to catch up with a couple of my cousins. Friday everyone was feeling better and the 2 that hadn't gotten sick yet still felt great, so we decided to join my sister in law Diane and her kids on their "fun friday" For this fun friday we headed up to salt lake to go to Discovery Gateway. The kids had so much fun playing with all the different things they have to do there. After that we went to Diane's house in Lehi and stayed there for the night before heading out to Highland on Saturday to start the Phillippi Family Reunion week. Saturday at about 1:00pm we headed to my sister Janna's house to stay there for 3 nights. On the way (a short 10 minute drive) Quincy told me that she wasn't feeling well. When we got to my sister's house we rushed Quincy straight to the bathroom where shortly after she threw up. With all of my brothers and sisters being in town that week we had things planned everyday with everybody. I knew that if we exposed it to just one of my sister's kids it would soon get spread throughout all the kids and many plans would get ruined. Since we had only been there for a few minutes, I decided to leave and go to a hotel in attempt to not spread this around anymore (at least not to anyone I knew-sorry hotel visitors). We stayed at the Best Western in Lehi for 2 nights to make sure all the germs were gone. The hotel was great, close to the grocery store and gas stations, had free wireless internet (where I thought I was going to catch up on my blog, but that didn't happen) and a free breakfast with really yummy pancakes (lehi roller mills mix). The only problem was the TV didn't have any inputs on the back to hook up our wii. I called Brandee to let her know that there was a chance that Haley might still get sick. Word spread around and my sister in law Diane called and I happened to mention to her that we couldn't hook up our wii and she came right down with her portable 9" TV/VCR combo to hook the wii up to. The next morning my brother Jim called and offered to bring us dinner to the hotel. Jim and my brother Brent (from New Jersey, who I haven't seen in 2 years) came brought us this big spread of Roast, carrots, potatoes, gravy, fruit and juice. It was so yummy! I just say enough how touched I was that family members were so willing to help up out and bring us stuff while we were stuck in the hotel. Thanks again, thank you, thank you, thank you! On sunday Quincy was feeling much better and even ate the roast one of her favorite meals and kept it down so we decided to start joining in on the reunion festivities. That was the end of all the vomit. I will not go into detail about the diarrhea, for some reason that is too gross for me to share.

We were in the lobby of the hotel waiting for them to finish cleaning our room and this is what my boys started doing. They have never done this before, at least not that I know of.

For some reason, I am not able to upload pictures. I will post later with pictures....

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

It's a good thing we are planning on being here in Utah for a couple of weeks cause I spent all of yesterday with sick kids and today making sure they are really better! 3 out of my 4 kids were throwing up at one time or the other yesterday, which was extra stressful not being at my own house! It also made me cancel some plans I had today that I am hoping to be able to still fit in sometime. But the good news is that they all woke up this morning feeling much better and have kept everything down that they have eaten. Hopefully no one else will get it!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Just thought I'd let everybody know...I made it to Utah safe and sound. We left this morning at 6:00am and arrived in Eagle Mountain at 6:15pm (which is really good considering I lost an hour). I drove all by myself with just the kids and Peter will fly up and join us on the 23rd. The kids were really good (kudos whoever thought of putting a TV in the car!) That's all!

Monday, July 7, 2008

I just bought my first craigslist item! I hate running on a treadmill and I can't seem to get my butt out of bed at 6am to run before peter goes to work, so I thought it was time to get a jogger stroller for Jake. I have been looking on craiglist for a couple of months now and this weekend found the perfect stroller, right price and only 8 miles away. This stroller new sells for around $300 and I was able to get one in really good condition for only $40! I am so exited about it, and can't wait for school to start so I can finally get back in shape.

I am hoping to get a good 2 years worth out of it and then put it back on craigslist! Oh, and I'm starting to think of stuff I can get rid of on craigslist now.

Friday, July 4, 2008

For about 6 months now I have been wanting to make the switch to digital scrapbooking. Every year for mother's day, I give my mom and my mother in law scrapbook pages of the previous year for their grandkids album. My parents went on a mission in 2003, so I decided to take a break from doing the pages until they came back. After they came back, the announced that a year later they were going on another mission. All of a sudden, I was 5 years behind. This year, I made myself get caught up with my mother-in-law and did regular scrapbooking pages. And now I am going to try and digital scrapbook my mom's pages and have them done for her when she gets home from her mission in december. Yesterday, I decided to sit down and start my first page and this is what I came up with.

It took me forever to do, cause I'm not very creative and I am still learning photoshop. Hopefully the more I do, the faster I can get them done and then I can start working on my own albums! It's not fancy like the examples you see on different scrapbooking websites but I am happy with it. I'm so excited! This is scrapbooking I can actually do with little kids around.